"Alright, good," Luna said. "Where to begin... where to begin..."

Spike sat there, watching the alicorn gather her thoughts.

"You and Twilight are aware of the Bureau whose jurisdiction covers the three planets following this one in the solar system, correct? You are aware of the heliocentric system and these planets, right?"

Spike nodded. "Yep, Twilight figured out the whole solar system thing and then heard about that whole Bureau thing from Doc Zed."

Luna blinked. "Who's Doc Zed?"

"He's a pony from the... uh... the next planet. I guess he's a scientist dude who's friends with some ponies that Scootaloo ran into. Don't know many details about the guy."

"Huh, interesting. The name sounds vaguely familiar..." Luna trailed off. "In any case, basically, the Bureau was founded by other alicorns."

It was Spike's turn to blink with surprise. "Other alicorns? You mean there are more of you guys?"

Luna nodded. "Indeed. Five alicorns currently head the Bureau, though it was not always this way. The process to unify the planets was... long and arduous, to say the least. Bikahuk of the Gnostic planet—the current head of the Bureau High Council, at a matter of fact—she's the one who came up with the idea to unite the planets under one banner, and at first that seemed like an excellent idea. All fifteen of us alicorns—discounting the first two planets of course—working together to protect and enrich the citizens of all the planets? It was all we had dreamed of doing. And yet... it didn't quite work out how she'd hoped."

"What happened?" Spike asked.

"Well, nopony could agree on exactly how this government would operate in a way that was fair to all ponies and all of the planets... so the negotiations soon fell apart. The Revan planet declared war on the Gnostic planet and then the Kindred planet came to the Gnostic planet's aid, and then the Vergla planet... stayed neutral for some time before assisting the Revan planet. Regardless, there was war. Our brothers and sisters, these alicorn leaders we had been proud to call our friends... they sent their own ponies into battle to die. They didn't care—they thought they were doing the right thing, of course—but it sickened my sisters and I."

"Sisters?" Spike asked, raising an eyebrow. "I thought Cadance's ascension wasn't until just before you returned from the moon?"

"Chrysalis," Luna deadpanned. "Don't even ask."

"Heh, okay. Go on," Spike said, gesturing with a claw.

"So, not wanting the same fate to befall the ponies under our watch, we resolved to cut our planet—the Ecuestran planet, in their terms—off from the rest of the system. Even if we had no control over their ponies, we could at least prevent the ones here from getting involved. Celestia, Chrysalis, and I resolved to magically create the forcefield around the planet and concoct the story that the sun revolved around it which we then—for their own good, mind you—brainwashed our citizenry with. We were left with ponies that seemed... happy."

"But that doesn't seem right," Spike said with a frown. "Taking all that knowledge away, and lying to everypony? I know you wanted to protect them, but that's just treating them like children who can't take care of themselves."

"I know," Luna replied. "And I see that now. It was and is a great mistake, and one we continue to pay dearly for."